When it comes to security, Android devices are a mixed bag - to say the least. Few manufacturers make promises about long-term support, and timely security updates are rare. This is understandably a concern for large businesses, which often don't want to worry about security flaws or constantly deploy new devices. For many enterprise customers, the question of which Android phones should be used is difficult to answer.

Google's solution to this problem is the 'Android Enterprise Recommended' program, which defines which Android devices are ideal for business use. All phones in the program must be running Android 7.0 or higher, support zero-touch enrollment (only applies to Oreo devices), be sold carrier-unlocked, and comply with other requirements.

These days, many manufacturers include some sort of blue light filter or "night light" in their phones' ROMs. Google, Samsung, OnePlus, and some other companies are on the list, and Sony was as well with its "Good night actions" function in Xperia Actions for phones in the XA1 family. However, following the impending Oreo updates, no Sony phone will have a built-in blue light filter.

Sony has maintained mostly the same design on its smartphones for years - a blocky shape, usually with a side fingerprint sensor and large bezels. While there are plenty of people content with that aesthetic (they are very vocal in our comments), there's no denying Sony's lineup is starting to look a bit dated, with 18:9 screens and small bezels becoming more common.

Sony's been busy with announcements so far at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, debuting new headphones and speakers, an Android Auto audio system, and some new phones (trademark bezels still intact). There are surely many more new Sony things being launched at the show, but not all of them are relevant to us here. New Android TV sets with the Google Assistant built in? Yep, that's relevant enough.

The last time we covered LineageOS, the project had started supporting seven new phones, including the Xperia Z5 Compact and LG K10. Since then, several additional devices have been added to the official build roster. These include the Sony Xperia Z5, Samsung Galaxy S6, and Redmi 3S/3X.

Sony is pretty good about letting the open-source community have a field day with its devices thanks to the company's Open Devices Program. Two new phones just got added: Xperia XA2 and Xperia XA2 Ultra. That means that they are open to flashing custom versions of Oreo.

It's fairly simple to create unobtrusive advertising on computers, phones, tablets, and other devices with a screen - users can simply ignore the ads. However, that doesn't translate to smart speakers, since the only interface is speaking. There's no unobtrusive way to stop in the middle of a sentence and start talking about a sale.

Thankfully, at least for the moment, Amazon agrees that ads have no place on smart speakers. According to a report from The Information, Sony approached Amazon several times about running ads on its Jeopardy Alexa game. The company refused each time, explaining that advertising could alienate users.

Android TV saw a good bit of attention at CES, but if you don't want to wait for the new TV sets with it built-in (or pay full MSRP), then you may want to check out this deal over on the usual vendors like Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H. The 2017 model Sony XBR75X900E is sitting at $2,498, a nice $700 off.

CES is wrapping up (I left Thursday afternoon), so we figured it would be a good time to sit down and give all of you an easy place to find a bunch of the stuff announced that is related to Android. This post will focus on all of the television sets that will come with Android TV installed. I got see a few of them on the show floor, but they weren't all that exciting from a brief glance standpoint — we've all seen TVs and most of us know what Android TV looks like by now.

The Xperia XZ1 was originally announced at IFA 2017, and it arrived in the United States in September. The original price was a whopping $699.99, but as usual, the price started to fall shortly after launch. The XZ1 dropped to $599 back in November, and now you can get the 'Warm Silver' model for $543.44 from Amazon.